by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou...
Language: English
Our translations: ITA
Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend Upon thy self thy beauty's legacy? Nature's bequest gives nothing, but doth lend, And being frank she lends to those are free: Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse The bounteous largess given thee to give? Profitless usurer, why dost thou use So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live? For having traffic with thy self alone, Thou of thy self thy sweet self dost deceive: Then how when nature calls thee to be gone, What acceptable audit canst thou leave? Thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee, Which, used, lives th' executor to be.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), no title, appears in Sonnets, no. 4 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Michael G. Cunningham (b. 1937), "Unthrifty loveliness", op. 112 no. ? (1985), first performed 1986 [ medium-high voice ], from Shakespeare Sonnets, Set 2 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Thomas A. Hyde , "Unthrifty loveliness", 1974 [ low voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Richard Simpson (1820 - 1876), "Sonnet IV", 1864 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by David Winkler , "Sonnet IV", 1982 [ SATB quartet and piano ], from Cycle for Several Voices and Piano, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (François Pierre Guillaume Guizot) , no title, appears in Œuvres Complètes de Shakspeare Volume VIII, in Sonnets, no. 4, first published 1863
- FRE French (Français) (François-Victor Hugo) , no title, appears in Sonnets de Shakespeare, no. 4, first published 1857
- ITA Italian (Italiano) (Ferdinando Albeggiani) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2007-10-07
Line count: 14
Word count: 104